It has inspired hundreds of parody clips from members of the British army and Thai navy among others.

YouTube’s owner Google said the video had been watched seven million to 10 million times a day on average.

It overtook the previous record holder — Justin Bieber’s music video “Baby”.

“Psy’s success is a great testament to the universal appeal of catchy music – and er, great equine dance moves,” YouTube trends manager Kevin Allocca wrote on the service’s blog.

BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills said: “Psy came into my Radio 1 show and The Guinness World Records presented him with a plaque for the most ‘liked’ YouTube video of all time and the amazing thing is he is just a guy, he hasn’t tried to do any of this.”